1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric food processor in which food materials to be processed are supplied from above to a grater plate that moves either rotationally or reciprocally, so that the food materials are subjected to a grating process, and further to a grater plate used in such an electric food processor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electric food processors in which a grater plate is moved rotationally or reciprocally, so that by pushing vegetables such as radishes against such a running grater plate, the vegetables are sliced, finely minced, and/or grated, are generally known.
In the electric food processor disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 55-48600, cutter blades are formed by cutting and raising (bending) on only one surface side of a rotating grater plate. In the apparatus shown in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 61-35143, cutter blades are formed by cutting and raising on both surface sides of a grater plate.
With the electric food processor of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 55-48600, it is necessary to provide grater plates of differing coarseness in order to meet the changes in the coarseness of the grating blades, making handling of the apparatus a bother. With the food processor of Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 61-35143, because the grating blades of differing coarseness are formed on both front and back surface sides of the grater plate, it can be said that the number of grater plates provided is fewer compared to the device of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 55-48600.
In conventional electric food processors, however, the gap between the lower end opening of a food material charging section and the grater plate is fixed. Accordingly, when the coarseness of the grating blades on the front and back sides differs (in other words, when the height of the grating blades on the front and back sides differs), the gap between the grating blade tip ends and the lower end opening of the food material charging section will vary with respect to the front and back sides of the grater plate. In such cases, particularly when using fine grating blades (that is, small grating blades the cutter blade height thereof is low), the gap between the tip ends of the grating blades and the lower end opening of the food material charging section becomes excessive, so that unprocessed (or ungrated) food materials will escape from the gap in the final stage of grating processing. As a result, problems arise. The unprocessed food materials get mixed in with the processed grated food materials, and as a result, the quality of the completely processed grated food materials becomes non-homogenous.